Russia launched its largest aerial attack since the beginning of the war, killing four people across the country and striking a key government building in Kyiv for the first time.
Smoke could be seen rising from the building, which is the home of the country’s cabinet and ministers, with the area cordoned off as fire engines and ambulances attended.
The attack on the Ukrainian capital killed two people and wounded 20 others, according to city officials.
Those killed were a mother and her three-month-old child, whose bodies were dug out of the rubble, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration, said.
Putin’s forces had launched 810 drones and decoys, with Ukraine’s air force stating that it had shot down 747 drones and four missiles.
The strike on an official government building marks an escalation in Russia’s air campaign, which has so far spared such buildings in the city centre.
Yuriy Ihnat, an air force spokesperson, confirmed to AP that Sunday’s attack was the largest Russian drone strike since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Overall, Volodymyr Zelensky said that four people were killed and 44 wounded and called for sanctions on Russia and for strengthening Ukraine’s air defences.
“Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have started long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” he said.
“The world can force the Kremlin criminals to stop killing; only political will is needed.”
He said he had spoken on the phone with French president Emmanuel Macron about the attack.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr Macron accused Russia of “striking indiscriminately” and said Moscow “is locking itself ever deeper into the logic of war and terror”.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer also condemned the attack, saying: “These cowardly strikes show that Putin believes he can act with impunity. He is not serious about peace.
“Now, more than ever, we must stand firm in our support for Ukraine and its sovereignty.”
Direct drone hits struck a nine-storey residential building in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district and a four-storey residential building in Darnytskyi district.
“I just have no more words left to express what I feel towards Russia,” said Olha, a 77-year-old Kyiv resident whose apartment was damaged. She did not give her last name.
“Although I’m an ethnic Russian myself, from outside Moscow, I’ve never thought my people would be capable of this.”
Ukraine’s prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko posted a video of herself inside the damaged government building, where she said a fire covering 800 square metres was put out.
“For the first time since the start of full-scale invasion, Russians struck our government headquarters in the centre of Kyiv,” she said.
“It looks like Russia is not seeking peace and is not ready for negotiations. We call our partners to help close our sky. Let’s strengthen sanctions against Russia. Let’s create the security guarantees system that will help stop the enemy,” she said.
The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that it used “high-precision weapons” and drones to strike drone assembly and storage sites, military air bases in central, southern and eastern Ukraine, an industrial facility and a logistics facility on the outskirts of Kyiv.
The ministry said that “all designated objects were hit” and said that “no strikes were carried out on other objects within the borders of Kyiv”, in what could be a reference to the damaged government building.
Sunday’s attack is the second mass Russian drone and missile attack to target Kyiv within two weeks, as hopes for peace talks wane.
It comes after European leaders pressed Putin to work to end the war after 26 of Ukraine’s allies pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once the fighting ends.
Mr Zelensky has said he is ready to meet Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged US president Donald Trump to impose punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.
Moscow has repeatedly objected to any Western troop deployments to Ukraine and pushed back against a Putin-Zelensky summit, saying lower-level talks must take place first.
Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences intercepted a total of 100 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the annexed Crimean peninsula and the Azov Sea between 8pm on Saturday and 6.30am on Sunday.
Most were downed over the Belgorod, Voronezh and Krasnodar regions near the border with Ukraine, according to the statement.
In the Krasnodar region, falling drone debris sparked a brief fire at an oil refinery, local authorities said.
The Russian defence ministry also said on Sunday that its troops had seized the village of Khoroshe in the Dnipropetrovsk region. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine.
